Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

So after a week of being away Abi is home again and it appears that the person that missed her most is Izzy! Despite showing no real sign that this was the case, when she walked back through the door Izzy could barely stop herself from throwing her arms around her sister and giving her an enormous hug.  Abi pretended not to be pleased but secretly you could tell she was happy to see Izzy as well. This time Glenn picked her up and it was a marked improvement. Abi made the point to me "Have you not noticed what a good mood I'm in?" When I said that I had indeed noticed, she responded with "Daddy picking me up is so much better - he doesn't bombard me with questions"! Guess that's me told then! I did say that I only do this to show that I'm interested in her week and that I've missed her, to which I got "I know you're interested and I know you've missed me... you don't need to make a thing of it"! Oh so wise at such a young...

This weekend we have mainly been enjoying the fact that I had a whole 4 days off and we therefore managed to squeeze a trip to Somerset AND a trip to see Simon & Sharron in their (now not so new) house - perfect. We made good time back and settled down in front of the fire with SCD and a bit of Horseopoly, ably assisted by Freya! Yesterday's whistle stop tour to Somerset was as lovely as ever. It was just Izzy and I and we managed to get down in good time for lunch before heading up to the Quantocks to blow out some cobwebs. We parked in Dead Women's Ditch and then went down towards Lady's Coombe and then back up to the top to make the most of the views. Izzy was fuelled on sugar for the first part but then wilted briefly when she realised I was being truthful when I said I hadn't brought the whole packet, just the ones she had in her pocket! She soon perked back up again and raced Ben up the hill to jump in the most enormous puddles together. This the same bo...

So after a week of anticipation both Izzy and I lined up for our first cyclo cross races today! I will admit that I spent most of hers with my heart in my mouth cheering her on and trying not to burst into tears - what is it with kids and emotions?! I was so proud of her for lining  up so bravely with almost 80 other kids and then taking her time around what was a twisty little course. When my time came I was cursing Glenn for suggesting I do this. My course (unlike last weeks) was all either up or down wooded single track - his perfect course and my worst nightmare! Typically he has pulled his back so he wasn't even riding it! I did my warm up sighting lap and would have happily pulled out at that point, not least given the almighty crash I'd seen in Izzy's race. However I lined up with the other novices, behind the youth race and off we went. After the first lap I realised my biggest chance of coming off was going too slowly around the corners and I got going properly ...

Hooray for Sunday nights now that I don’t always have to go to work on a Monday- what a difference that makes! This week just gone was a full on 5 day week and it felt like it by Friday. Not only did I have to work on Monday to do a client pitch (which we lost), but I also had to be in London on Friday for an all-afternoon quality meeting. Who on earth thinks that they will get everyone's attention on what is really a relatively dry subject at that point in the week? As if that wasn’t bad enough, the session was led by a Latvian partner from our global team (generally considered to be a team of very well paid but possibly not always vital partners). He started  from an assumption that we could barely spell quality let alone understand its importance, so when he was still on the title slide after nearly an hour and a half the whole room (all senior partners) he was on a losing wicket. Luckily he had enough sense to finish still before the scheduled time which was the high post of ...

So now Izzy and Glenn are feeling better, Freya is feeling poorly - is there no end to it? Poor girl has obviously eaten something which she shouldn't have and has been having accidents in the house since Thursday morning. We've had to resort to putting her back in the crate overnight which has mostly contained it (either encouraging her to wait or at least containing any damage to one place), but she's clearly feeling a bit sorry for herself. Not even Bertie's encouragements to play have been responded to. I think she's on the mend however as this afternoon he lay down next to her and she tried to chew his leg (in a friendly way) - a sign she's feeling better I hope. This weekend has been a quiet one, dominated by partial mishaps. I took the kids up to the riding stables on Friday evening, somewhat later than normal and slightly against my better judgement - it being the end of the week, 2 tired kids etc. etc. We set off as normal and headed from the road i...